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Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Coming of factory to Midway Station makes others, and a hotel, more likely, officials say

By Casey Parker-Bell
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Teelcommunications

If you build it, so might others.

Midway Mayor Grayson Vandegrift says the recently announced
auto parts plant for Midway Station could bring the city more jobs and
businesses, such as more factories and a hotel.

“No one ever wants to be the first one through the door,”
Vandegrift said about the challenges of bringing industry to Midway after the
Woodford Economic Development Authority met Friday at Midway City Hall. “Once
someone sees industry in there, they kind of tend to figure, ‘Well, they did
their homework. Must be good land, must be a good prospect here. Maybe we will
relocate there too.’”

The person who could be most responsible for bringing new
business to Midway is Lexington developer Dennis Anderson. He has an option to
purchase Midway Station for commercial and residential development and says he
has been in discussions with multiple prospects, including retail, medical and
biotech businesses, but they are waiting on approval of the tax-increment
financing district for the property.

A TIF district would allow Midway Station’s estimated $31
million in redevelopment costs to be subsidized with tax revenue from the
development. Anderson said that Midway Station needs significant changes to its
infrastructure before development can begin. “The land is too hilly for large
buildings to go on,” he said. “It wasn’t ever graded. They just went and put
the roads and the streets and everything in.”

The TIF district was approved by Woodford County in August
and is pending state approval. “We have inquiries, but until we understand what
we have with the TIF our hands are kind of tied,” Anderson said. Vandegrift announced at Monday's Midway City Council meeting that the TIF ordinance will need to be amended to exclude occupational taxes to win state approval.

Midway Station is a publicly owned tract of land originally
intended to be an industrial park. After the development’s inability to attract
industry, Midway Station is now zoned mainly for commercial and residential
development.

If the TIF district is approved by the state, Anderson said,
“It is my intention to exercise the option.” He says he has 120 days to
exercise his option after the approval of the TIF district.

Anderson says he wants to build a community in Midway but
said, “I never dreamed it would be this long, this difficult and this
expensive.” Recently, a Subway opened in Anderson’s Green Gables development,
where Anderson says he is saving a spot for a hotel.

“Well, Green Gables we saved one site and anticipated
getting a hotel,” Anderson said. “We intend to pursue that line.” Just because
Anderson wants a hotel, does not mean he believes it will happen immediately.
“How long will it sit and wait trying to get a hotel, you know, I don’t know.”

Vandegrift said the new factory would “absolutely” make the
arrival of a hotel more likely. And John Soper, chairman of the Woodford County
Economic Development Authority, believes the factory was “the missing piece” to
generate interest from a hotel.

Soper said a hotel operator looked at a two-acre lot next to
McDonald’s and decided not to move on the property, but that was before the
announcement of the factory.

American Howa Kentucky Inc., the company building the
auto-parts factory, will become the second largest job provider in Midway,
according to Vandegrift. The largest now is Midway University, with about 100
jobs.

“The one thing we really lack in Midway is jobs,” said
Vandegrift. He said AHK’s decision to build in Midway could lead to more
development in Midway Station. Vandegrift said in the future there might be
four or five business in the development’s industrial area: “I mean, maybe that
ends up totaling 250 jobs. That would be enormous for Midway.”

Soper agrees with Vandegrift that the factory could spur
other developments and said that there are other businesses interested in
Midway. “We’re constantly in conversations with other plants that have looked
at this,” Soper said. “It is a very long process.” He added it was “premature”
to say whether there would be any new developments soon.

Soper said he anticipates AHK will buy the land in January,
at the latest. AHK is a Japanese company that manufactures interior automotive
products.

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News in and around the small but surprisingly interesting town of Midway, Ky., reported, written and photographed mainly by students in community journalism classes in the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media, taught by Extension Professor Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues,www.RuralJournalism.org.